Scottish Executive

Drug Education

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what funds police forces are able to access for specific alcohol and drug awareness campaigns.

Mr Jim Wallace: Police authorities and joint police boards, in consultation with chief constables, set budgets for individual forces. It is then a matter for chief constables to determine how they use the funds made available to them in this way to meet local needs and circumstances.

  In addition, Drug and Alcohol Action Teams, of which police forces are members, may bid for resources from national communications budgets to support local campaigns. For example, a total of £1.5 million is available for the Executive's anti-binge drinking campaign "How much is too much?" and £6.3 million, in total over three years, for the Executive's drugs communications strategy "Know the Score". In 2001, the Executive provided £150,000 to support communications aspects of the police Safer Scotland drugs campaign, also called "Know the Score".

Education

Irene McGugan (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list all agencies that may be authorised to access the personalised information about individual pupils that has been collected in the Scottish Exchange of Educational Data.

Nicol Stephen: The ScotXed (Scottish Exchange of Educational Data) project is a partnership of the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) with local authorities, schools, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA), HM Inspectorate of Education and Learning and Teaching Scotland to promote the electronic exchange of educational information to common standards. The project will provide better quality information and link-ups between education partners in Scotland and will encourage the good use of management information by schools and education authorities.

  Each ScotXed partner will have access to different levels of information. Schools and the local authority will have access to all information which they require to carry out their administrative and management functions. The SQA will have access to limited personalised information required to carry out the functions associated with administering the examination process. SEED will have access to the information collected through ScotXed for its statistical surveys.

Justice

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton (Lothians) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Committee of the Council of Tribunals has any powers to investigate allegations of fraud in respect of tribunals and, in particular, employment tribunals and whether it will detail such powers.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Scottish Committee of the Council on Tribunals has no powers to investigate allegations of fraud in respect of tribunals. The committee's statutory role is to keep under review and to report on the constitution and working of tribunals and on matters such as the rules of procedure under which they operate. Fraud is a criminal matter which is for the police and Crown Office to investigate.

Justice

Brian Fitzpatrick (Strathkelvin and Bearsden) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which bodies it consulted with in April 2002 on civil court fees in the Court of Session and the sheriff courts.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Executive’s consultation exercise was based on a paper issued in September 2001. The names of the bodies to whom the consultation paper were sent are given in the following list:

  Action of Churches Together in Scotland

  Catholic Church in Scotland

  Evangelical Alliance (Scotland)

  Faculty of Advocates

  The General Assembly

  The Law Society of Scotland

  Part-time Sheriffs’ Association

  Scottish Association of Citizens Advice Scotland

  Scottish Consumer Council

  Scottish Inter Faith Council

  Scottish Legal Aid Board

  Scottish Parliament Justice Committee

  Scottish Sheriff Court Users Group

  The Sheriffs’ Association

  St Columbas Episcopal Church

  The consultation paper was also placed on the Scottish Executive Website inviting responses. The following organisations and individuals responded to this general invitation to give comments:

  Scottish Council for the Single Homeless

  Campbell Smith WS

  The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers

  Scottish Legal Action Group

  Simpson and Marwick WS

  Scottish Liberal Democrats

  Professor Alan Paterson, Strathclyde University.

Police

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many police stations have been operated by (a) Tayside Police, (b) Northern Constabulary, (c) Strathclyde Police, (d) Lothian and Borders Police, (e) Grampian Police, (f) Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary and (g) Central Scotland Police in each year since 1997.

Mr Jim Wallace: This information is not held centrally. The numbers of police stations may be obtained separately from each of the forces named or from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland.

Police

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list by title each document that it has sent to each police force in each of the last three years.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Executive is in regular contact with police forces and there is a regular flow of material, in both directions, across a range of subjects. This flow includes e-mails and letters, in addition to circulars and other papers. There is no central monitoring of this exchange and to put such a process in place would be unduly bureaucratic and costly.

Police

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much it cost to produce and circulate documents that it sent to each police force in each of the last three years.

Mr Jim Wallace: The Executive is in regular contact with police forces and there is a regular flow of material, in both directions, across a range of subjects. This flow includes e-mails and letters, in addition to circulars and other papers. There is no central monitoring of this exchange and no estimates have been made of the costs of producing and circulating these documents. To put such a process in place would be unduly bureaucratic and costly.

Prison Service

Michael Matheson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-25569 by Mr Jim Wallace on 16 May 2002 and S1W-26494 and S1W-26495 by Mr Jim Wallace on 20 June 2002, what the reason was for the errors in answers S1W-26060 and S1W-26061 by Mr Jim Wallace on 30 May 2002.

Mr Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  Arithmetic errors occurred in converting the numbers of performance measure points previously awarded to summarise the numbers of incidents. The errors were noticed and corrected as soon as possible but, regrettably, not before the answers to S1W-26060 and S1W-26061 were given.

Prison Service

Roseanna Cunningham (Perth) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-25103 by Mr Jim Wallace on 21 June 2002, whether it will list all prisons and young offenders institutions in the Scottish Prison Service where it is possible to see from one wing what is happening in one or more other wings.

Mr Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  It is possible, to varying degrees, to see from one (although not necessarily all) wings to another in the following prisons:

  Edinburgh

  Glenochil

  Perth

  Polmont

  Shotts.

Prison Service

Roseanna Cunningham (Perth) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-25103 by Mr Jim Wallace on 21 June 2002, what the benefits are of it being possible to see from one prison wing to another.

Mr Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  The main benefit is that staff are able to monitor what is happening in other wings.

Railway Crime

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive by what percentage reported crime on the rail network rose in the past year, detailing what (a) practical and (b) financial support it provided to the rail industry to address this issue.

Mr Jim Wallace: The number of crimes recorded by the British Transport Police (BTP), as provided by them to the Scottish Executive, is shown in the following table.

  

 

2000 
  

2001 
  

Percentage Change 
  



Total recorded crimes in Scotland 
  

3,381 
  

4,014 
  

19 
  



  Funding for the BTP is a matter for the British Transport Police Committee and Scottish ministers have no direct locus. A primary inspection by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, published in March 2001, found evidence of strong relationships, good liaison and effective working between BTP Scottish Area and Scottish Police Forces.

Rural Development

Robin Harper (Lothians) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has set up an advisory panel in relation to its forthcoming survey of public attitudes to food and farming and, if so, how the members of the panel were chosen and who will represent the interests of organic food and farming.

Ross Finnie: The Scottish Executive has recently set up an advisory panel in relation to its forthcoming survey of public attitudes to food and farming. The organisations represented on the advisory panel are the Food Standards Agency Scotland, the National Farmers Union of Scotland, Quality Meat Scotland, the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers, the Scottish Consumer Council, Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Environment LINK and the Scottish Food Qualifications and Certification board. The organisations were chosen following internal discussion and consultation with various external stakeholders. The organisations were chosen to represent a broad range of producer and consumer interests rather than to represent particular modes of production. The Executive recognises the importance of organic food and organic food production and the advisory panel will cover these interests. Organic food and farming will be one aspect of food production addressed in the survey.

Scottish Executive Staff

Andrew Wilson (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive,  further to the answer to question S1W-25820 by Mr Andy Kerr on 18 June 2002, whether the retrieval of information to rectify an underpayment of wages and allowances to its staff would qualify as a circumstance where all possible means would be taken to retrieve such information where it had been misplaced or where the timescales for holding the information had been exceeded.

Peter Peacock: The retrieval of information to rectify an underpayment of wages and allowances is a circumstance where all reasonable means would be taken to retrieve such information where it had been misplaced or where the timescales for holding the information had been exceeded.